


the cause, the kid, the course, the charm, and the curse

by mumblecore



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Ballroom Dancing, Dancing, Father-Son Relationship, Fire Nation (Avatar), Firelord Zuko (Avatar), Hakoda (Avatar) is a Good Parent, How Do I Tag, I Don't Even Know, M/M, Weddings, Zuko is an Awkward Turtleduck, dw about the title it sounds kinda scary but the fic is fluff, i didn't really elaborate on that but we all know he is, if that classifies as fluff, no beta we die like lu ten
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-29
Updated: 2020-07-29
Packaged: 2021-03-06 03:40:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,336
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25596673
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mumblecore/pseuds/mumblecore
Summary: "Dear Agni, this is ridiculous.""Oh come on, dad will surely embarrass both himself and me more than you'll embarrass yourself."OrZuko and Hakoda both need to learn how to dance. Father-son(-in-law) bonding follows.
Relationships: Hakoda & Sokka (Avatar), Hakoda & Zuko (Avatar), Sokka/Zuko (Avatar)
Comments: 7
Kudos: 335





	the cause, the kid, the course, the charm, and the curse

He would be getting married in just one month.

Everything was ready. Zuko was sure of that, but checking one more time wouldn't hurt anyone. They say that if there's a possibility of anything going wrong, it will go wrong. Zuko will eliminate all of those possibilities.

They had their rings and their garments. The invitations were sent out a long time ago. The final version of Zuko's vows was looking really well since uncle Iroh gave him advice and threw in some of his poetically cryptic lines.

Suddenly the realization struck him. He's never attended a wedding before, didn't really have the time for that, so it wasn't that surprising that it didn't dawn on him any sooner.

In Fire Nation, everyone danced at weddings. He surely would have to dance at his own too.

Sokka was to take care of Water Tribe traditions, which was why Zuko's neck was adorned with a beautifully carved betrothal necklace for some time now. In both Water Tribes, the ceremony is to be organized by parents. Only in the Southern Water Tribe people are allowed to choose their own spouses.

Fire Nation doesn't have many customs concerning marriage. Yeah, there is the traditional attire and the lanterns of flowers, but that's it. Except it's not, because even if there wasn't anything about dances in Zuko's scrolls, there was bound to be some kind of dance. It would probably be something so standard that no noble would ever forget about. That made it a bit easier to figure out what exactly he had to learn.

It would be humiliating if the Fire Lord didn't dance at his wedding, but it would be even worse if he did dance and did it poorly. Zuko knew how to dance. They taught royals things like that, obviously. What Zuko was worried about was the execution. Sure, dancing was pretty much firebending katas with some little twists. The thing is, Zuko has seen sinking ships go down with more grace than he would ever dance with without proper practice.

Later that day, Zuko found out that Sokka had assumed his fiancé already knew all about this Fire Nation dance. Zuko knew that it was a perfectly reasonable thing to expect when your fiancé is the Fire Lord. He also knew that he couldn't afford to embarrass himself in front of Sokka. (It wouldn't be a problem if only both of them weren't any good at this dancing thing.) Don't get me wrong, Sokka would never break up with Zuko over a thing as small as tripping while performing a traditional Fire Nation dance, but being the butt of a seemingly harmless joke didn't exactly appeal to him.

A sigh escaped Zuko's mouth as he let his head fall on the warrior's shoulder.

"Who'd think that some dancing could indeed defeat a Fire Lord? I was right all this time."

"Sokka, 'tap dancing our way to victory' wouldn't ever work, and you know that." 

"Yeah, yeah, and The Dancing Dragon isn't a real dance."

Zuko rolled his eyes, "Exactly."

Getting ready for another one of Sokka's attempts at humor (he said it was a bad day for his puns today), Zuko looked up at his fiancé. He brushed a strand of black, silky hair out of his face.

"Do you have father-son dances here too? I've heard that father-daughter ones are a thing in the Earth Kingdom."

Zuko was sure they had father-daughter dances, but he wasn't sure how it would work when there isn't a woman in the equation. The last same-sex marriage took place before his great-grandfather Sozin outlawed homosexual couples. Probably even uncle Iroh wouldn't know if there were father-son dances. And if there were, was he supposed to dance with his father? You know, since he was already courted like a woman by Sokka. If yes was the answer, he'd pass. He didn't plan on inviting Ozai at all, and as appealing as the idea of intendedly stepping on his feet was, it wouldn't be safe.

It was a whole different story if Sokka meant himself and Hakoda sharing a dance. If his fiancé really wanted to do it, Zuko wouldn't mind introducing a new tradition to the people of the Fire Nation. So instead of admitting that he has no idea if that's a thing, he said, "Yeah, sure. Would you like to dance with your father?"

Sokka smiled down at him and nodded, "Yes, very much." The grin was fast to disappear from his face and even faster to appear again, "He definitely can't perform any Fire Nation dances, but that just means the two of you can take dance classes together!"

Oh no, oh no. Zuko didn't think there could be anything worse than humiliating himself in front of his fiancé a month before the wedding, but doing this exact thing but in front of his fiancé's dad was his new biggest fear.

⊹

"Dear Agni, this is ridiculous." Zuko grumbled out but didn't stop making his way to the ballroom (also known as the throne room but without that giant red carpet in the middle because it would surely cause dancing Zuko to trip).

"Oh come on, dad will surely embarrass both himself and me more than you'll embarrass yourself." Sokka, who was dropping him off to his lessons, exclaimed with a grin on his face.

Inside the room, Hakoda was already chatting with the dance instructor. Zuko couldn't hear what they were talking about, but as the narrator, I can tell you that the chief was just saying how proud of his son and soon to be son-in-law he was.

Zuko walked closer to the two and bowed, "Chief, instructor, thank you both for your presence."

Hakoda smiled at him in response while the dance instructor said something along the lines of 'it's my pleasure' and introduced himself as Kirin. Then he asked his two newest students to position themselves in a certain way.

"You're marrying my son, you should start calling me dad or at least by my name." The older man said while stretching out his arm towards Zuko.

Zuko grabbed Hakoda's hand with hesitance as if he was afraid it would burn him. Then, when the man's other hand met his waist Zuko nearly flinched. He automatically started to scold himself in his head for reacting this way, but the moment he saw the gentleness in Hakoda's eyes, he calmed down. Soon enough the pair began to move steadily around the ballroom, following Kirin's management.

"One, two, three, four, five, six… Don’t look at your feet!"

The boy mumbles a 'sorry' and flicks his eyes back up to Hakoda's. His foot crashes down on his partner's, so he apologizes again and wonders if Kirin noticed his slip-up.

"Listen," Hakoda begins. "You’re doing just fine and you don't need to apologize for things like that."

_ 'You can't be perfect at everything from the start' _ , huh? Uncle used to tell him that a lot. He also told him that it always took him a lot of effort to pick something up, but when he finally did, he mastered it. Zuko wasn't so sure about that though, he never mastered the art of making tea, he was good at it, but definitely not a master. He wasn't sure about the first statement either, because Azula was always the best at anything she ever tried. 

"One, two, three, four and-spin-and-back, good!"

"See," Hakoda smiles at him. "We’re doing good." Zuko rolls his eyes but smiles back politely anyway.

They have spent the next minute or so not saying anything and the corners of Hakoda's mouth began to twitch slightly. Of course he wouldn't find the silence pleasant, just like his son. 

"So... What's your favorite animal, Zuko?" The man asked pretty much out of nowhere.

"I don't think that talking while dancing is appropriate, Hakoda," He said and then lowered the volume of his voice a bit. "But my favorite animals are turtleducks. What about you, dad?"


End file.
